START POINT PRIZE – Prize for emerging artists

In the expressive paintings by Richard Roháč one can detect traces of the visual language of Július Jakoby, a native of Košice, or the Belgian symbolist artist of the late 19th century, James Ensor. In the existentially conceived work Make yourself he examines the meaning of life in post-modern society through a confrontation of this period with his own artwork – its values and doubts and certainties; and on this basis he seeks to define the fundamental characteristics of today’s society and also the paradoxical position of the human being in society. One can feel his negative attitude to the depicted reality, in this way his approach stems from contemporary critics of society and refers to the work of Gilles Lipovetzky and Erich Fromm. (lg)